The academic profession in Russia, represented by the personnel of scientific institutes and by university instructors, is going through difficult times. On the one hand, there are ongoing serious debates and discussion concerning the future of the Russian Academy of Sciences and directions in its reform; on the other hand, education reform and conversion to the Bologna system are changing the landscape of higher education. At the center of these changes are the professionals employed in the academic sphere, since their status, career prospects, and activity are becoming the object of the reforms. In this article the author focuses on examining collisions between academic autonomy and administrative procedures in today's Russian university. He emphasizes at the outset that the organizational changes in institutions of higher learning are of a global character; since the mid-1980s they have been described by sociologists of professions and organizations as the extension of the managerialist logic onto the activity of academic institutes. (Contains 7 notes.) [This article was translated by Kim Braithwaite.]